Presentation information

This information about past presentations delivered by ICMEC's co-directors is by no means complete, but is considered as possibly of interest.

ICMEC Co-director speaks to Greater London Assembly Committee

Eva Lloyd, Reader in Early Childhood and Co-director of the International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare at the Cass School of Education and Communities, addressed members of the Greater London Assembly Health and Public Services Committee on 13 July 2011. She discussed findings of a report on the London childcare market she co-authored with Professor Helen Penn, Co-director if ICMEC, and three economists from London research agencies.

International presentations by Helen Penn

Helen Penn has been invited to speak at a number of international events, because of the work being undertaken by ICMEC on childcare markets. She gave a seminar on childcare markets at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, in October 2010; and another at the National University of Taiwan, also in October. Both seminars were attended by government representatives as well as academics and postgraduate students.

She was invited to the UNESCO World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) held in Moscow in 2010, attended by delegates from almost every country. She spoke alongside the deputy Minister for Education in South Africa on options for financing childcare. She argued that international aid agencies had low aspirations for ECCE, and considered that the private entrepreneurs could be relied on to deliver services; whereas the evidence indicated that government intervention was more effective, especially in reaching the poorest children.

Helen was also invited to chair the finance session at the EU presidency conference in Budapest, in Hungary in February 2011. She summarized the issues facing European countries concerning the funding of childcare, and chaired the discussion between Jan van Raven, a Harvard economist, who had been developing costing models for Eastern European countries, and the Director of Early Education and Care for Slovenia, which had a fully funded government system of care and education, and which was increasingly being used as a model for Europe.

(posted 9 March 2011)

Seminar presentation Eva Lloyd

On 8 October 2009 Eva Lloyd gave a seminar presentation at the Royal Docks Business School at UEL as part of the comparative study she is undertaking of recent childcare market developments in England and The Netherlands. The presentation's title was: 'Childcare markets in England and The Netherlands.' It was the first time she shared emerging data from this study with colleagues. To see the PP presentation you can follow this link: Finalised presentation Childcare markets in England and The Netherlands 8 October 2009 With support from the Royal Docks Business School at UEL Eva Lloyd is researching the impact of childcare market developments in the two countries over the last decade. In recent years both countries hae passed legislation explicitly promoting the marketisation and privatisation of childcare provision for young children. In England the role of market forces has been made more prominent by means of the Childcare Act 2006, while in The Netherlands this has been done by means of the 2005 Wet op de Kinderopvang. This situation contrasts with that in many other OECD countries, notably those in the EU, where early childhood education and care provision is not governed by market principles, but is predominantly publicly funded. While pursuing similar childcare policy objectives, England and The Netherlands employed contrasting strategies to encourage the childcare market. Emerging evidence suggests national differences in the intended and unintended consequences of these developments.